Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always by my trust in colleague West hodkow it'z. We're coming to you hear from our studios at Lambeufield here to
talk about the home opener coming up here. West is a Sunday noon kickoff at Lambeau Packers versus Saints, and the Saints are coming in with a two or zero record, built largely on the strength of their defense, allowing only one touchdown through the first two games of the season, and that touchdown occurred with like just over a minute
to go in game number two. This Saints defense is I've been saying it's probably the toughest test for Jordan Love and this Packers offense for at least the first half of the season, maybe for the maybe on the entire schedule.
I would agree. And just what Dennis Allen has done with that unit. I mean, you forget ten years ago, just the roller coaster that those Saints teams went through because Drew Brees would be thrown for five thousand yards and then they couldn't stop anybody either. And you know, it's been a steady progression for them. But you know, Dennis Allen has sort of been the exception to the rule.
This is a league where defensive coordinators one don't tend to last very long for one reason or another, positive or negative in two in having success that has slowly built up. I think when you look at these Saints defenses, they've gotten better every single year. Dennis Allen has been there. The training camp practice we had here last year super impressive unit. But I think they've even taken yet another step.
And the probably the most impressive thing of all to me is that Larry mccaerron said this when we were doing three things on Wednesday. And it's true they have name brand talent at a number of positions, but even more than that, they have ageless wonders at those spots. I mean, Cameron Jordan, if you've ever looked at it, has one of them satisfying box score career stat lines
I think I've ever seen. I mean, he went years by playing in every single game, and although he did miss one last year and the year before, it actually has allowed him to continue the streak of sixteen starts a season. Yeah, and he continues to be a top playmaker the honey Badger. I mean, you see Marshawn Lattimore coming back kind of a scary incident last year, and you know, return at the end of last season and
he's built back as good as he's ever been. It's a very dangerous unit for Jordan Love and this Packers offense to tackle, but also an incredible opportunity to show how far this offense has come in a short period of time.
Yeah, yesterday when I was putting together a story on the Saints defense and I was looking up, you know, with regard to Cam Jordan de Mario Davis at middle linebacker, Lattimore and Tyron Matthew. Like you said, in the secondary, you start adding up to the the All Pros and the Pro Bowls and stuff, and you lose track. Because these these are extremely veteran, extremely accomplished play in this league.
They will have to make one significant adjustment in the secondary because starting safety Marcus May, who has an interception this season, has been suspended by the NFL for a violation of the substance Abuse policy, so he will not be on the field at Lambeau. But this defense, it started to hit its stride in the second half of last season. You look at how twenty twenty two went for the Saints. Seven of their first nine games I believe on the season they allowed twenty four plus points
or something like that, seven out of nine. But then in the final eight games last season they did not allow any team to score more than twenty and that streak has now continued into twenty twenty three. They're at ten consecutive games not allowing more than twenty points, which is one off of the longest such streak by a defense in the NFL basically in the last twenty five three years. So a major test for the Green Bay Packers for Jordan Love, and we'll see what happens with
regard to where things are on offense. Christian Watson is back at practice, Aaron Jones is not. Elton Jenkins is out kind of on He's on a week to week basis right now. David Bakhtiari essentially is week to week as well from what we know at this point, So we'll see just who all is out there comes Sunday. The one that we know for sure won't be I think is Jenkins. Everybody else will have to see what happens.
But as we talked about on our last show, the Packers were putting together a pretty good offensive performance despite being extremely shorthanded in terms of some of your major players against Atlanta. You've got to you've got to be able to, you know, bounce back from that rough fourth quarter, pick up where you left off in that second and third quarters in Atlanta and try to try to capitalize on the opportunities you do get against a tough unit.
Yeah. One of the big points I've been stressing this week, and a lot of my writing has been remembering what you did well in the third quarter, but learning from what happened in the fourth. Yeah, and you know, Packers got up One thing not enough people really talk about, and it's a story that I'm writing this week. It's something you and I have discussed as the fact that Jordan Love for all of these games that he's played, so few of them have actually come at lambeau Field.
I mean the times in which he's gotten in and gotten some experience. Now he finally gets that home field advantage. The Packers have to make that count and we'll see what tools and weapons are going to be around him in this one. Certainly it was a positive sign to see Christian Watson being able to practice again on Wednesday after returning last Friday. That's a big, big check mark there to make sure there were no setbacks in his rehab.
But David Bactieri, Elton Jenkins, and Aaron Jones, that's that's three of the best at their position, not on this football team, but in the National Football League, and they're going to have to overcome that. At the same token, the New Orleans Saints are dealing with their own business right now. As you mentioned, may get suspended. Elvin Kamar is still on the suspension, and now Jamal Williams has this hamstring injury that likely is going to sideline him
on Sunday. So now they're looking at a young backfield that's going up with Derek Carr. The most intriguing thing to me, and I don't want to end up sounding like a broken record here, Mike, but watching these turnover margins and differentials in the coming weeks is going to be really critical because, yes, the Packers have done a
great job of protecting the football. They need to extend that into this game against the Saints because they're going up against the New Orleans offense that has been a little inconsistent in recent years. And while they have made the transition now to Derek Carr. Carr has one touchdown,
he has two interceptions, He's been sacked eight times. There is opportunity out there, but you have to make sure that if this game is going to be seventeen to fourteen, you get the points to win those type of games.
Yeah, and that's what I was going to say about Carr with him taking over now in New Orleans. You look at and it is only just two games thus far, but you look at the stats, you see sixty four percent completion rate seems to be pretty efficient. But the two interceptions in the eight sacks definitely jump off the page. After two games, there is the potential to disrupt things, to make things difficult on this Saints offense. They won't have Kamara in the backfield. It sounds like they won't
have Jamal Williams. That's certainly going to put an even bigger spotlight than normal on Taysom Hill and how the Saints are going to use him, whether it be as a straight tailback or as a wildcat quarterback or whatever they want to do. There in their receiving corps. They have right now, they have kind of the one to two the combination of the old pro with the young rising star. You've got Michael Thomas, you got Chris Olave,
those guys, and Derek Carr's a veteran quarterback. You figure it's not going to take that long for all of those guys to get on the same page. But I think the big question with this game, based on how well the Fat Falcons ran the ball and ultimately used that to come back and defeat the Packers in the fourth quarter last week. What are the Saints going to do to run the ball, because you know they're going to want to attack the Packers and their run defense
that did not perform well last week. But by the same token, you can't just you can't just ignore what you do well, which right now they're not the greatest rushing offense because they've had so many moving parts in the backfield.
It's one hundred percent correct, Mike, But there also is a young man down there in Tony Jones Junior, who's best game in the National Football League came right out of the gate against the Packers in twenty twenty one. Eleven carries fifty yards. That was a tough day for the Packers trying to defend the run. Jones was the complimentary back in that scenario, and he ran the ball
really well. He's never run for fifty yards again. I don't even know that rookie that twenty twenty one season if he ended up running for another fifty the entire year. But he has that confidence in his back pocket if they have to turn to him in this game. For me, though, it does go back to the tricks. It comes back to Taysom Hill. The Packers have actually done a pretty good job defending Taysom Hill in the past few years.
Alvin Kamara a little bit of a different story, but Taysom Hill, they've been able to keep him somewhat under wraps. You have to imagine though, they are going to be cooking up and coming up with some interesting plans for him. Obviously, last week we saw what he can do with the ball in his hand. Get him in space. He's still quick. Even though everyone wants to talk about the age number,
he kind of plays beyond that. And then, as we were talking about before we went on air, you know, Rashid Shaheed is a guy that has really impressed me as a former college free agent that again has made some critical plays for them both last year and now going into this year. And he gives you a special team's aspect of that you know game as well. The New Orleans Saints went and got Derek Carr for a very specific reason. It's almost kind of like the New
York Jets light. They had a team they felt could compete to win a division title. They had a team they felt could compete to actually get to the playoffs, but they just made either too many mistakes when as Winston was in there, or they just got a little bit too blase when it was Andy Dalton. Derek Carr gives them a little bit more of both worlds there, the playmaking and also the protection. And that's what they're
hoping to build this thing off of. They were hoping with that signing and that acquisition that they were that player away from being able to make this thing happen. Yeah.
Absolutely, I want to get to our keys to victory here for Green Bay. But first a little bit of sponsor business. Serious XM NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need twenty four to seven three sixty five, And at Cousin Subs, we have something for everyone like our Wisconsin Cheese curds, mac and cheese, golden fries, and creamy shakes, all paired with your favorite sub or sub and a
bowl Cousin Subs fifty years of better. All right, Keys to Victory. We've already dropped a few suggestions here and there, but if you were to put something at the top of the list, Wes, what is the a number one priority that we'll get the Packers a victory on Sunday.
This is not gonna sound great, okay, because it's the home opener at lambeau Field, and there's seventy eight thousand people there that are reven and rare in to go, and you want them to have as entertaining of a football game as possible. But for me, it's that if the game gets kind of boring, if there isn't a whole lot of sparkle happening, don't be the ones that make the sparkle for the Saints. The Packers have to
be smart. I think where you've seen these two victories that New Orleans has had, it has been predicated on the opponent making a mistake in the Saints taking advantage of it and ultimately using that to win. Green Bay has played really clean football. I don't know what the percentage possibilities are of going three straight games to start a season without a turnover. This would be appreciated though,
if that can happen in this game. And defensively, it's getting back to what they did well against the Bears, getting in rotations with that defensive front. I sat here and I pontificated about, you know, Kenny Clark and Preston Smith and being able to kind of keep some reps off of these guys. They need young guys to step
up up once again against the Saints. It's easy for me to sit here and say, yeah, stop the run, but that has to happen because the Packers need to keep an eye on Chris A. Lave on the back end. They need to keep an eye on some of those big plays downfield. If the Packers can win this game in the trenches up front, in force maybe a turnover two along the way, that's going to help out Jordan Love's cause and hopefully getting his first win at lambeau Field.
It sounds like the way you started things. Is what you're saying is don't force it. Don't force it. You can't. You can't try to take something that's that's not there.
Even if it gets boring, even if it.
Yeah, and and and the urgent that there's good, there's gonna be some urgency there. And here's here's the way I see this game. When I look at and I understand two weeks as a small sample size. We're just in week three here, But when I look at the Saints first two games and everything about this defense and and how well they're playing. The Tennessee Titans kicked five field goals. The Carolina Panthers kicked three field goals before
they scored a touchdown. The scoring opportunities are there. Teams have not saying they've gone up and down the field, but teams have moved the ball well enough at certain points in the games to give themselves scoring opportunities. Against the Saints. In that Tennessee Titans game, I looked back at the numbers. Three of the five field goals that Tennessee kicked were thirty one yards or shorter. That means those possessions were deep in the red zone, but they
couldn't finish the drives. If the Packers are only going to get say they're going to follow the same pattern as the Panthers or the Titans, and they're going to get four or five scoring opportunities in this game, it comes down to are you going to score touchdowns? Are
you going to kick field goals? Because if not, to say you're going to score a touchdown every single time, but if you get enough touchdowns and you're scoring opportunities as opposed to only kicking field goals or as the Panthers did, kicking field goals until the last two minutes of the game, that's going to be the difference between whether you have sixteen seventeen points on the board or you're up there in the twenty four to twenty seven
range and breaking this streak of New Orleans holding opponents to twenty or less for ten consecutive games. I believe the Packers are going to have chances to score points. It's going to be a matter of whether they whether they cash in, and that's ultimately going to decide this game. I do think the Packers defense is going to bounce
back from its performance last week. I know I talked all off season about how the Packers defense has to stop, you know, this roller coaster thing, which was the story all of last season where they play really well and they don't play well and they go through these ups and downs. Well, they just had a down. They just had a down game, certainly a down fourth quarter in Atlanta, so they have to bring it back up again. But then but then try to stay there as best they can.
I think it comes down to what are the Packers going to do with the score chances when they get them?
Yeah, and honestly play like a team that plays outdoors. It's not going to be cold, but I mean a team that is built for this type of environment. I think, historically speaking, you can't take one season and just translate it to another. But the New Orleans Saints are typically a much different team when they're on grass, as opposed to win there in the super Dome, as opposed to win there in those climate controlled environments. I think the Packers it's been a long wait to get back to
lambeau Field for meaningful football, not just preseason. Yeah, making sure that you can actually capitalize on that is going to be imperative because there are so many things. I
just think about this. I've been kind of manifesting in my mind a little bit on while this game could start, And I mean, just imagine with Jordan Love being able to get off to some of these quicker starts that they have, being able to put points on the board in the first quarter, for a Green Bay Packers crowd that is just ready to come on glued for this young guy. There's no better way that you could start
a football game. And I think one of the big things we never talk enough about, because you're absolutely right about the points margins and everything like that, but the emotional upliftingness of a touchdown, of putting twenty five thirty points on the board is all the momentum that comes with that. The Packers have to be able to take care of that.
Yeah. Absolutely, And with regard I lost my train of thought there for.
A second, I could say one more thing, go ahead, if you want the Green Bay Packers, we are going to have a big transition with iPhones with your Packers app. Yes, So if you are coming to the game, there's some great little tidbits on Packers dot Com that you could find that is actually going to give you some information to update your app so you can access your tickets. Yes, you're going to want to do that before you come to Lambeufield and then cheer for Jordan Love.
Yes, that's a great reminder, the update, update your app so you don't have any issues with your tickets. We're in this whole all electronic ticket world, right, you got to have everything with your phone working right or you're going to be standing out in the parking lot going how do I get in? But I don't want to be in that situation.
As I said an insider inbox, my dad has already done it, and if my God bless him, my sixty two year old father can do it, Gosh darn it, you can do it.
Too, all right. The other thing I was going to point out is that you know you have to make and it's it sounds funny to say it this way, you have to make the fourth quarter failure last week in Atlanta count for something, which means that you've you've got to you've got to learn from it. You've got
to understand, you've got to understand why it happened. And on both sides of the ball, defensively and offensively, you have to understand why it happened, what led to it, and but by the same token, while while learning from it, you can't dwell on it. You can't let you can't let the one bad quarter beat you again. And then you have another game coming up, you know, four days after on Sunday. Don't don't let one bad quarter of football suddenly turn the whole first quarter of your season
upside down. I think Matt Lafleur has always had, has always had a really good mentality and a really good approach to how to deal with coming up short, how to deal with failure. And this was and on the offensive side, this was Jordan Love's first first time, you know, stepping into that crucible of crunch time in an NFL regular season game, and you have to make the failure count, make it worth something so that you're better the next time.
And I'll close with this, Matt Lafleur has not been in a joking mood this week, nor would I try to be a comedian. But you know, when you look at what happened in the fourth quarter, I really am reminded of that story he always likes to tell about his time with the Houston Texans.
Yeah, his first year in the NFL as a lowly offensive assistant for the Houston Texans going up against Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colt.
And the Packers weren't facing Peyton Manning in this game, but it does again remind you of you know, twelve thirteen, fourteen point leads. Yeah, if you feel really good about it, you have that confidence in that swagger. But they really can go quickly, and I think for a young football team that's the biggest benefit right now. Yeah, Matt Lafleur
and the coaching staff, they've experienced it. A couple of these veterans on this team have experienced it, Guys like Dontavian Wicks and Jaden Reed and this young roster they might have gotten a taste of it in college, but realistically those are the eye openers that kind of remind you that league. No lead is safe in this league. Yeah, you have to make those opportunities count. You have to really put your your stamp on these games when you have the opportunity to do so.
Yeah, absolutely quickly before we go a couple of other games in the NFC North to pay attention to that. Let's go Falcons. The Atlanta Falcons, who just beat the Green Bay Packers, now go to Ford Field in Detroit to take on the Lions. So the Falcons playing the Packers and Lions in back to back weeks, and then the Packers and Lions are going to play one another on Thursday Night football here coming up. And then we touched on this one also on our last show. The
Chargers are going to Minnesota. Two teams that are both zero and two, two teams that nobody thought would be zero to two at this stage, and barring a seventy minute stalemate, one of these teams is going to be oh to three in beginning. We both made the playoffs last year.
And you saying that, you know, two oh and two teams that nobody expected, just like Sunday Night Football now, where you're gonna have a two and o team in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hosting the defending NFC champions in the Philadelphi Eagles, a team that I don't think many people expect to be two and oh either. So like it just shows you that, regardless of whatever the narratives are around these teams, to use another old Matt Lafleur line,
you gotta do it on the grass. Yeah, and the Buccaneers going to and taking on Philly now with a chance to really get off to fast start, that's one thing. But US Bank Stadium playing host to this game, this could get real bad, real quick for the Vikings if
they don't attack this thing the right way. Because while the Chargers are oh and two, and while there are the Brandon Staley questions out there, they have lost those games very by narrow, very very easy for you, very narrow margins, three narrow margins in one of those is too a Miami Dolphins team that's suddenly, you know, NFL's pundit's already talking about them being a Super Bowl contender. Yeah, So the reminder is there of how important it is
and how crucial it is to win these games. And then also from the Falcons perspective, you know, Arthur Smith, I was watching a lot of the interviews this week. Not that they're feeling themselves. I think they've taken the right mentality, but the NFL is feeling the Falcons now.
And you know, an opportunity after getting in having this incredible two and oh start, which is the first time in however many years they've done that to go three and oh, it would be really important in a division that looks like it's going to be a complete, you know race right till the end.
Yeah, when you have when you bring a brand new potential rising star into this league and he does what Bejeon Robinson has done in the first two weeks, where you're getting a glimpse of what that young man can do. But everybody who's watching it knows that as the oak cliche goes, that's just scratching the surface, like there's there's no idea, there's no ceiling as to just maybe what that young man could accomplish.
And guess what he gets to do this weekend he gets to face the Detroit Lions. So very interested to see how that one plays out. The narratives potentially coming out of that game could be expansive.
Yeah, absolutely, with that, we'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team and everything from Sunday's home opener at lambeau Field Packers and Saints. We'll have it all for you on Packers dot com for wes I Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We will see you next time.